"The Terrible Thinking Cap Tussle"
As long as I'm talking about Lockman, I've gotta mention this conceptually interesting one. So we're familiar with Disney Studio Program probably? It was a thing to create extra stories for foreign markets, because apparently Western's furious release rate was not sufficient to satisfy the ravening lust of overseas readers for Disney comics. Most famously, the Hubbard/Kinney Fethry stories were DSP productions. I dunno. I'd like to see a comparison of how many American-made stories other countries were really publishing compared to the US. Was it THAT many more? I mean, granted, issues of Topolino were and are 150+ pages, published weekly, so...maybe I answered my own question. Man, that's NUTS. As much as I like Disney comics...I feel like that might be too many Disney comics for me. Not gonna lie. But it probably would've been the right number when I was small, which is, I suppose, the point.
At any rate! This was a Studio story, published in 1962, under the title "Brainstorm Battle." And it WAS published in English, in Australia (twice!), so it definitely had an extant English script that IDW could've used when they reprinted it in 2017. At least...I assume so? There's no way those Australian comics are "lost," is there? Surely not. Well, either they didn't have a script, or they thought the one they did have wasn't good enough, and so they got Joe Torcivia to write a new one. Or possibly just heavily revise the existing one. But either way, the result is something quite unusual. I remember kinda wanting to write about this when it was published, but then...I didn't. So fiddle dee dee.
(Yes, I've poked around a bit looking for scans of Australian Disney comics, but no luck so farand I'm not convinced they actually exist. But hey, if you got 'em, hook me up. I'll let you choose a story for me to write about.)
See, Joe's a big fan of Lockman and clearly wanted to pay tribute to the man. His--Lockman's--most easily-identifiable trait is his tendency to include these little bits of minor wordplay--they're not in all his stories, but when they are, they're easy to identify. So: "flying fashion statement," "anti-social climbers," "right up our alley," "accosted by oafs"--it feels like Lockman might have written a line like this here or there, but here we're just barraged by them. It creates the feel of a sort of hypothetical Hyper-Lockman who never actually existed. More Lockman than Lockman. And to be clear, I think this is a lot of fun. It's not the world's most amazing story (though it has its moments), but the writing really elevates it and (I'm just gonna say, not having seen the original) unlocks its true potential.
(BUT--okay, I'll admit it--I kind of prefer the original title. Not that the new one is terrible or anything, but it feels like it's trying just a li'l too hard. Sometimes less is more.)
Though if you wanted, you could also call it a tribute more generally to sixties cartoons. Lockman never would've made a pop culture reference like this.
One other thing I'd like to note: I don't know about you all, but for me, this drives home the fact that presentation can REALLY influence my perception of a story. To no one's surprise this is Strobl art, but would I be able to tell that if I didn't know, given the contemporary coloring and better print quality? The jury is out. I probably would more easily in a story with the main duck characters, as he had highly distinctive ways of drawing them, but here, I don't know.
"McDuck Buck Truck," that's a classic Lockman-style thing (though I doubt the original specified that this ordnance is merely "stun rounds"). Gyro sitting in the back of a garbage truck like that is a weird non-sequitur, and that dialogue box DOES seem like something someone would write if they were just trying to improvise, having no idea what was meant to go there (and it IS pretty funny). Then again, what that makes sense would?
A weird kind of hat. I'm actually not sure why I cut these panels, but here they are. I suppose just to introduce the concept of these birds.
Jeez, man. The idea that Gyro gets all his ideas from a novelty bird hat--yes, I know there were old Barks stories with him bonking himself on the head to come up with stuff, but when he did that, the ideas were clearly already in his head and just needed a way out. There was no suggestion that OTHER people could come up with inventions by giving themselves CRT.
I'm really not sure that this plan needed a super-brilliant mastermind. But never mind that. Instead, gasp in horror at that mutant nephew-alike newsie there.
Is it really the CITY that's in danger? I don't think banking is generally thought of as a municipal issue. Anyway, the banks are insured; they'll live. I'm trying to figure out if "Chief O'Bull" means anything, but I'm coming up blank. Is his first name Terra?
I don't care what you say, "hmm-ing birds" is great. I'd love to know what they were called in the original version, but I'm pretty sure it would've been something much lamer.
And don't I love this bit of casual Little-Nemo-esque surrealism? Don't I?
Jeez, calling their putative extinction "a trick on me." Not everything's about YOU, Gyro! I dig that "moved up in the world" business. When you think about it, "moved up in the world" doesn't really mean anything here in a practical sense (I mean yes, they're in higher-up nests, I guess, but come on). But that's why I like it. If I'm not careful, I'm going to accidentally awaken Pretentious GeoX and start comparing this script to hermetic poetry, intentionally rejecting explicit meaning in favor of language as an end unto itself. Some people run to conceits or wisdom, but I hold to the hard, brown, nutlike word.
And credit to Strobl, because delighted-Gyro-with-birds-on-his-head is definitely one for the ages. But why are we so concerned here? What's going on?
Well, we have THIS fanciful image from a utopian society where billionaires are ground underfoot. It's humorously nonsensical, but I REALLY would appreciate it if Gryo wouldn't mess with this new, awesome status quo. But alas...
Another great image: Gyro and a Beagle furiously thinking at each other. What exactly are they meant to be thinking about, exactly? Only murder, one presumes.
I would take exception to the idea that Gyro's default state is having the same intelligence as a Beagle Boy and it's only with his birds that he's anything special, but...well, I do. I do take exception to that. But at least it WAS established earlier in the story, so there's that.
Seems like the go-to move here would be to behead you then, no? Granted, then you'd have a flippin' severed head you couldn't get rid of, but...well, here's hoping they don't!
I mean, this story is not a deathless work of art or anything, regardless of who wrote it, but I feel pretty confident that this version is a lot more readable than the original. And it's getting me thinking that it would be fun to do with other old Western stories. Not Barks, that would feel like a desecration, and probably not for a lot of others as well. But I do think that in the vast, trackless wasteland of seventies Disney stories, you could probably find something you could really improve. Maybe I'll try something like that one of these...time periods. Though it could pretty easily get insufferable.
And I feel like I've been obsessing about Lockman (who was a Bircher--have I mentioned that?) too much lately, so probably something different next time.
Labels: Joe Torcivia, Tony Strobl, Vic Lockman
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at
12:24 PM
15 Comments:
It’s so weird to imagine these friendly-looking birds being okay with helping a bad guy become smarter so he can commit crimes.
And I love the “hmm-ing birds” pun…
But damn. Damn! Damn! Damn… damn! I hate the idea of Gyro’s brainpower relying on some magical cap! As an extra burst (like a mallet in Barks stories)? Sure, why not. It looks painful as hell, but why not... But the idea that he can’t be naturally smart without it? No! No!! No!!!
It’s the same reason I hated some later Famous Studios cartoons where Popeye is shown to be weak as a child unless he eats spinach that day. No - he’s meant to be strong as hell without it. Spinach just gives him an extra burst. Reducing a character like that makes him less special.
For the same reason, I hate stories where Scrooge’s fortune depends on him owning the dime. His attachment to the dime is meant to be psychological, not literal. It’s not “Lost my dime? Well, the stocks are going down.” I’m fine if he THINKS that in some stories (it's just Scrooge being silly), but not if it’s implied that the dime actually has real power.
Heck, there’s even a rare, obscure Italian story that gives Gladstone some kind of weird talisman as the source of his luck, or suggests that Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, favors him for some reason. In his case, it might almost make sense, since you could argue his luck is practically magical, so it’s natural to assume there must be some higher power behind it… but even then, it cheapens the character.
You could just as well make a Beagle Boys story where they wake up and drink a glass of “Mean Juice” to stay villains, or else they turn goody-goody. BUT -- OH, NO!!! Supply runs out, and now they’re turning nice! They run into Magica, Glomgold, and... Idk, the Phantom Blot, all crying in the street because their Mean Juice ran out too!!! And Mickey laughs because he still has his daily Boy Scout Potion in his trusty fridge! But oh-oh! Goofy lost his Dimwit Sock and is turning into a sophisticated aristocrat without it, so he asks Pluto for help -- except Pluto lost his Bark Collar, and now he doesn’t act like a dog and can talk, and it's the terrible life of verbal comunication for him! THAT'S HOW STUPID THIS CONCEPT SOUND TO ME!!!
And I hate (well, strongly dislike) how the story treats it as a simple matter of fact, like, “Oh yeah, it was always this way.” All this time you thought Gyro was naturally smart? Ha! Here’s the real truth.
They couldn’t even give us a “Turns out Gyro doesn’t need the hat — the brain was inside him all along” ending.
The Duck Tales classic “Bubba’s Big Brainstorm” has a better character arc. There, at least they explain how the character got the stupid device, and he realizes he doesn’t need it to matter.
There. I said it.
Well, you're not wrong about any of this! I still enjoy the story, but that does require accepting some dubious shit. I guess it would bother me more, but I'm not really as hung up on "canon" as I have been in the past, I think.
With "Brainstorm Battle," AKA "The Terrible Thinking-Cap Tussle," I actually had a scan of an Australian printing—which would have matched the official S-coded version (which I didn't have as a script; but that's often missing, so the Australian issues are my standard fill-in reference as editor).
And the official S-coded version of "Brainstorm Battle" reflected the status quo of many early S-coded stories, which was that they were edited heavy-handedly with little care for whether the added/replaced dialogue—almost uniformly stiff and bland—matched the tone of what surrounded it.
As a result, in "Brainstorm Battle" I found myself looking at a Lockman story that was mostly hyper-Lockman in tone from page 3 onward, but sounded far less like his dialogue earlier on, which was pretty par for the S-coded course.
I brought Joe Torcivia, ace Lockman expert, on to make the less Lockman-y segments sound more in tune with the rest of it…
In the bigger picture: despite the presence of an English-speaking market in Australia, the S-code editorial team clearly viewed producing comics for the non-Anglosphere as their primary mission, and for that reason wanted dialogue simple, direct, and easy to translate—sometimes to the frustration of their writers, going by what they told me long ago.
It's safe to say that as a rule, unnaturally dull moments in otherwise bouncy S-coded stories don't usually reflect their writers'' wishes—so we always try to jazz them up when those pallid stretches hit.
Beyond Joe re-Lockmanizing Lockman, I've done similar rewrite work myself when Dick Kinney stories suddenly sound alarmingly dull and boring for a panel or two.
(Deleted and reposted to add a little more clarity here and there...)
I just checked with the italian version and dialogues are very similar to USA ones (but not for the "stun rounds"!). But I don't have the Brazilian version, which usually is the most similar to english scripts...
As Italian, the "thinking cap" was common in old Disney comics, it was funny and was that "illogical" touch you should love when you are a child... like US going around until wear down the floor! or flooding the room with his cry!
Oh! And I should note—the term "Hmm-ing Birds" is exactly as in the original, and I'm presuming it's a Lockman special.
In the bigger picture, considering the dozens of later stories in which the Thinking Cap appears (including some recent ones), I don't like the idea that Gyro is a dimwit without the birds' help, but I'm good with the modified idea that the birds' hmming helps him concentrate, giving a boost to his already bumptious-type brain.
(Yikes, now I'M sounding like Lockman!)
Thanks for the background info.
Even in this story, logic dictates that Gyro must have been able to create a watertower-rocket able to get to Little Thinkle Star all by himself, so the cap can't be doing *all* the work!
It occurs to me that there's probably a biting and timely A.I. satire to be written based on the Hmm-ing Birds and their importance or lack thereof. Hmm.
Going to chime in with GeoX on thanking @ramapith for the BTS look!
Incidentally, I forget if I mentioned this to you previously, but I scanlated an S-coded Strobl story myself a little while ago for love of the game. Sportsmanship requires me to emphasise that you really ought to review one of the new Fantagraphics monthlies before you start potentially writing about unofficial translations again, but happy to send it to you if it's any interest. It's a Scrooge/Magica story and rather good fun.
Well, ya didn’t think I was gonna sit THIS ONE out, did ya?
First and foremost, I must thank Geo for his (surprisingly) kind words on my once-in-a-lifetime “collaboration” with Vic Lockman. Frankly, his distaste (which he is certainly entitled to) for the old Western stories wore thin on me, accounting for my lengthy general absence. So, it is with all the more gusto ‘n’ gratitude that I offer these thanks! …Seriously!
As for what Lockman was in “real life”… They say “Never meet your heroes!”, and I’m glad I never met Mr. Lockman! Though, if I had, I would have limited the conversation to “writer-to-writer” stuff – and steered it back to that if he tried to do otherwise.
Besides, as a child of the sixties – when I was reading such stories as “Rough Voyage to Azatlan” a huge favorite of mine, as were “Og’s Iron Bed”, “The Battle of Hadrian’s Wall”, and many others – I knew nothing of the side of him that would cause NOBODY EVER to say “Yay for you!” I didn’t even know he had a name! I just liked the stories, and I can’t (and won’t) take that away from him! …And, unlike Bill Cosby, that stuff isn’t – and shouldn’t – be the first thing we think of, forcing us to always refer to this decidedly unique comic book writer with… qualification!
David said lots about the background of this story, so I’ll just throw in more items to help round it out some more.
Be glad you haven’t found Australian scans, because those things are DREADFUL! They show no appreciation or understanding of what these comics are supposed to be. The one for the story I called “Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold Again” had NO CLUE that it was to be a tribute/sequel to “Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold” to the extent that it named Yellow Beak the parrot as “Salty”!
Any references to that landmark Barks and Hannah story were mine and mine alone! And all I really did was (with no access to the Italian text at the time) restore the story to what was clearly its original intent – even if I had to do it flying blind! Even the final line of that Australian abomination was perhaps the LAMEST closer I’ve ever seen! So bad I flushed it from my mind!
LET'S BREAK HERE 'CAUSE GOOGLE SAYS I HAVE TO!
OKAY, GOOGLE, I’M BACK!
Then there was the story I called The Pelican Thief in UNCLE SCROOGE #403 FROM Boom! Studios… HOO-BOY! A decent Scarpa story made totally dismal by the Australian publisher!
This was the one and only time I was allowed to “throw everything out and create it from scratch”! Pretty much EVERYTHING you see in that story was my own invention… the Tex Avery parody stuff, the entire concept of “The Identity Thief”, and (regrettably in hindsight) a handful of pop-cultural and political references dating back to the then-current George W. Bush era.
…But, even there Vic Lockman was with me when I named one of The Identity Thief’s disguised identities as “J. Edgar Rover”, a Lockman riff on the name of the former FBI director, from BEAGLE BOYS #7 (1967). And, speaking of Late-Sixties Lockman, Gyro’s bird-brained thinking cap was born in stories I read of that era – though, by the original date of “Terrible Thinking Cap Tussle”, he must have created it earlier than I thought.
Looking at that story today, it’s somewhat difficult even for *me* to tell some of my lines from Lockman’s, but I *can* tell you that the first two scans in the post were all mine.
Also, as the sixties progressed into the early seventies, Lockman became more and more (as my late friend Chris Barat used to say) “loopy” in his dialogue and did so with greater frequency. You can see it progressing in “Rough Voyage to Azatlan”. He wrote so much material for Western at that time, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Woody Woodpecker, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Flintstones, Jetsons, as well as nearly every Disney title, that I didn’t even think this was the product of one individual… but sort of an evolving “Gold Key house style” not unlike that which Marvel and DC each had.
As far as this goes: “I would take exception to the idea that Gyro's default state is having the same intelligence as a Beagle Boy and it's only with his birds that he's anything special, but...well, I do. I do take exception to that. But at least it WAS established earlier in the story, so there's that.” I never saw it as anything along those lines. More like the birds (three each, until baby made four) brought them up to an EQUAL level! The Beagle’s birds obviously had to work much harder than Gyro’s!
Finally… “But I do think that in the vast, trackless wasteland of seventies Disney stories, you could probably find something you could really improve.”
I used to think that same thing as far back *as* the seventies and, as you say, those stories were not exactly “deathless work[s] of art or anything, regardless of who wrote it…”. While true in many cases, however, it was the ART that was so much worse than the stories themselves – such as anything written and (unfortunately) drawn by Bob Gregory, let alone anything poisoned by Kay Wright! Whatever you might have thought about the writing, the art was the greater problem!
“I feel pretty confident that this version is a lot more readable than the original.” …Your confidence is well placed – and even more so with the Australian stuff!
…Let’s do this more often!
Hey, it's great to see Joe Torcivia here again, and to get backstory from him on his contribution to reprints of Lockman stories. Also, interesting to know that Azatlan was a childhood fave of his. I don't think I came across it in childhood, but "Og's Iron Bed" was definitely one I re-read along with the Barks stories.
Personally, I've always felt the Thinking Cap is too silly to be the source of Gyro's brilliant ideas...though I suppose it's marginally better than the sometime-Barksian notion that he bonks himself on the head. That didn't strike child-me as funny, either. We were not a "Three Stooges" family!
Also, Pan Miluś: The Dimwit Sock makes me very, very happy!!
I like how there's a physical prop of that cap in existence, created for a kids show that Don Rosa appeared on as a guest; it looks amazing.
Funny enough, when I google "Gyro's thinking cap" this is the first thing that shows up:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/funny-comic-thinking-hat
That's some incredible dedication to crocheting.
Good to see you, Joe, but I just HAVE to take exception to this.
"his distaste (which he is certainly entitled to) for the old Western stories wore thin on me"
Okay, fine, I made one intemperate and not-well-thought-out comment about Disney comics in that rather ugly and best-forgotten Christmas incident. But GOOD LORD, my "distaste" for Western comics? They're practically all I write about these days, and not to tear them apart! I could practically be the president of the Dick Moores Fan Club! You're almost certainly one of very few people who's read more Western Disney material than I have! Sure, I criticize them when they're bad, but I must be doing something deeply wrong if my affection for them is not apparent.
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